As The Door Opened
by Espresso Yourself
Summary: All is normal at the post-Christmas World meeting. They're arguing before the holidays and all seems right. However, Romania shows up late with none of her usual vigor and pride. Exactly what has happened to her? Rated for slight gore and language.


_There was a long, eerie creak and a loud bang as the door opened and hit the wall opposite of it._

"Kind of you to join us," England remarked curtly to the tardy nation. She wasn't too terribly late, though she _had _interrupted them. She only shut the door gently and slunk into the room quietly. Romania was acting quite out-of-character Latvia thought to himself. Not only had she not made a stinging reply but her dressing habits seemed unusual as well. The woman was quite traditional on a normal basis and was quite proud of that fact; maybe even too proud. Latvia could not see her white blouse nor her floral printed knee-length skirt, for they were covered by a long black cloak. The smaller nation discarded his misgivings immediately when he remembered that they were at their post-Christmas meeting. Therefore, considering it was December and she'd only just arrived, Romania must've been cold. Still, it had nothing to do with her odd behaviour. Once again, Latvia decided that he was being a worrywart. Romania wasn't even his neighbour and he didn't know her too well.

Her auburn-black hair brushed her shoulders as she slowly began to make her way to her seat with a slight limp. She kept her dark eyes averted from the gazes of the others, which was also very strange. She would usually briskly approach her seat and meet the glares of everyone in the room evenly, as if asking for them to challenge her.

Prussia, noticing her limp, stood up and strode over to her with a 'kesese'.

"Aw, look at this poor little _Rumänien_," he taunted, leaning in close to her. "It seems that she is hurt!" He prodded her and gave her a slap on the back, which caused her breath to be knocked out of her. She seemed to be in pain, Latvia noticed. Hoping to stop it before it got worse, Latvia stood and stuttered to Prussia,

"L-let her be! You shouldn't mock Romania's pain!" He stood and made a move to grab Prussia's jacket so he could pull the albino away from the woman. Instead, he tripped on the leg of his chair as he was turning and fell. He would have dragged the taller nation down with him had Prussia not been tactful enough to sidestep out of the way. Latvia's outstretched hand snagged Romania's cloak before she took a step forward. A button popped off and Romania's cloak flew off as they both fell to the ground.

"Miss Romania! Are you okay? I'm so sorry!" Latvia apologised crawling over to the country who remained on her hands and knees, completely still. Latvia froze when he got a good sight of her.

Prussia began laughing at Latvia's failed attempt to help in a heartbeat, though he stopped in less time when he saw what made the smaller nation halt. The back of her blouse was torn and revealed long bloody slashes across her body. They were unnecessarily deep; whoever had done this did the deed well. There was one wound on her leg, which led Latvia to believe that it had been the reason for he limping. They were all still raw and fresh, though not all were bleeding. One was so deep that Latvia could've sworn he saw muscle, if not bone.

Romania's weakened body shook with silent sobs of humiliation as the other nations twisted around in their chairs and craned their necks to see what switched Prussia's cruel laughing face to a mask of pure horror.

"Romania," Latvia whispered, straining to get his voice even that loud, "what happened to you?" His fingers skimmed her back. Even such a gentle touch made her flinch. She did not answer. Romania stood, choking back tears, her fists clenched at her sides. She stalked proudly - or at least, as proudly as she could in her situation - off and stopped by America, who sat at the head of the table watching her every move, his mouth slightly agape.

"Do you need help?" he asked the brunette worriedly, though he was utterly shocked.

"May I borrow your gun?" was all she asked in her heavy Transylvanian accent. Clearly, no one had expected it.

"I-I suppose..." He stood, crossed the room, opened a box lined with velvet, and handed the pistol over shakily. As soon as it touched Romania's hands, she whirled and stalked over to where Latvia was still on his hands and knees. He felt a thrill of fear crawl down his spine as the country approached, and oh, how Latvia wished he had just let her deal with it herself. He squeezed his eyes shut in terror as her skirt brushed past his cheek.

_There was a long, eerie creak and a loud bang as the door opened and hit the wall opposite of it._

Latvia dared to open his eyes - just a little - in time to see Romania dash off into the snow, loaded gun in hand, towards her house. He let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding. He had been certain that he would be dead at that very moment and look like Switzerland's cheese. America swallowed and had to try several times before he was able to get out what he wanted to say.

"Maybe we should take our break early...?"

As their break began, there was much talk about the very strange occurrence with Romania. Latvia shuddered at the thought of her bloody back.

"I certainly hope Irina's all right! She's all alone and wounded in the cold and she left her cloak! What did that to her?" Ukraine fretted, directing her comment at Russia. Latvia knew Ukraine was Romania's neighbour, so it'd be natural that Ukraine was worried, not only for herself, but for Romania, too. Moldova shared a similar worried look on his face as scooped up and folded Romania's cape.

The room was quieted with the sound of shattering glass.

"What?" America questioned, disbelief ringing in his voice like a church bell on a Sunday morning. One of his subordinates gave him a distressed gaze and bent down to pick up the glass that America had dropped.

"What's happened now?" Ukraine, desperate for reassurance, asked as she spun to face the younger country.

"Romania's boss has just been killed!" The news was met with stunned silence.

"W-what should we say to her?" was all Spain managed to get out of himself. "Assuming she doesn't already know, of course."

"Well, I think we should take a more sensible approach to this situation," England began tactically, "Romania's clearly been through a great deal of trouble lately. First, we should ask ourselves if she'll even return here in the first place. If she does, I feel we should not bring it up and ask for those who are closer to her help her cope with the grief. If she wants help, that is. Moldova, Ukraine, I believe you should take care of this. The rest of us should keep our distance and offer condolences to her after the meeting. The only exception to that will be anyone who fancies themselves as a bloody American git should just not say anything." For a moment, Latvia thought that England's glare was so heated that it'd burn America into pile of ashes in seconds.

"I know what she must be feeling. You seem to be forgetting that I've lost several bosses in my lifetime! I can respect her! Like I'd say anything offensive in the first place."

England continues to glare daggers at America until he agreed to stay silent.

The break was over and the meeting commenced once more with a half-hearted effort to continue "taking care of" the other current issues at hand.

_There was a long, eerie creak and a loud bang as the door opened and hit the wall opposite of it._

Romania strolled into the room, looking perfectly content and at ease. She was clearly oblivious to her boss' death. Moldova, looking quite uncomfortable with the thought of addressing her in this state, turned slowly to tell her the news. He didn't have to, however.

"Your boss died!" America blurted out, losing his self-control. She looked up, her dark eyes as blank as a cloudy night sky. She approached him with what Latvia thought was a sense of caution. "Aren't you gonna say anything?" America asked, his voice tinged with empathy. Romania cocked her head slightly to one side as a small smile appeared on her lips. Looking America directly in the eyes, she said,

"Thank you for letting me borrow your gun," and set down on the table in front of him as stalked off with a throaty chuckle.

**HISTORY LESSON:**

In 1989, Romania fought a seven-day war for independence. It was fought against her president, Nicolae Ceauşescu. Finally, on the twenty-fifth of December, he and his wife had a two-hour trial and were sentenced to death. They got shot. During the short war, help flooded in from Hungary, France (though it probably just some "comforting time" with him), Bulgaria, the New East German Government (Germany had not yet fully been reunited at this time), Czechoslovakia, China, West Germany (Go Prussia!), The United Kingdom, Spain, Austria, Netherlands, Italy (they sent some white flags), Japan, Portugal, and the Moldavian SSR. Food, medicine, and other supplies were sent to them.

After the war, Romania was much more open with other countries. She became close friends with Hungary, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Turkey, and America. One of her goals is for Moldova, Georgia, and Ukraine to be friends with other Western countries.

They joined NATO in March of 2004 and the European Union on January 1st, 2007. Romania was very vocal of her support of Moldova, Turkey, and Croatia joining the European Union. She also vocalizes her support for NATO and EU membership for the democratic former Soviet republics in Eastern Europe. Romania shares a privileged economic relation with Turkey. In the early '90's, a movement for a Unification between Moldova and Romania was put forth (their bosses wanted them to get married and the were like... e.o ... **hellllllllllllllllllllll no**). Actually, the movement was politely declined and they remain active in each other's business.

BTW, that was almost copied and pasted from Wikipedia. XD

Congrats for reading the history lesson, you get a cookie! And an afterwards bonus story!

The following summer, America visited Romania's house for the first time ever. He was quite thrilled, for Romania's house was beautiful. It was on a peninsula and had a river running through it, called the Danube. Birds sang sweet songs as they swooped to and fro getting food and what not.

"What do you want? Food? Drink?" Romania demanded with her heavy accent, trying her best to be a polite hostess.

"Naw, that's all right, I'm good." Romania, seeing that the younger nation was content, sat down beside him in one of her wicker chairs. For a while they sat in silence on Romania's back porch, watching the river slice through the grass relentlessly.

"Romania?"

"You are wanting something now?" She made a move to stand but America shook his head.

"I wanna know why your revolution against your boss only lasted a week. After all, I know mine lasted _years._ How'd ya do it?"

"That? Is very easy, now let's see... I know of your revolution already, and I know of how longit lasted. I did not want to have my people be in despair for that long, so I simply say, 'I am tired of your bullshit, now I shoot you, 'kay?' And I did." Romania chortled darkly. America was very afraid and disturbed, though he smiled and laughed with his guileless friend.


End file.
